Ed Oldfield, president of the Powell River Salmon Society, told Global News that someone entered the grounds of the Duck Lake hatchery during Dec. 28 to 31, and interfered with key equipment resulting in the death of around 700,000 chum salmon.

“[They] altered nine of the valves that control flow to the water tanks,” he said. “They also took out stand pipes that went into the fish tanks. So it altered the water flow and caused a lack of water and oxygen for the fish, and we lost about 90 per cent of our chum fish.”

The society crew believe this will affect salmon stocks for the next 16 years. However it won’t completely devastate the river’s fish stocks because the hatchery only harvests about 20 to 25 per cent of eggs every year, they said.